The Russellville Democrat., 1887-12-21
TALaTAGE's SERMON,
A Homily on "Too Much Ado About
 Small Things"
Heaven Lost sight of in Worrying Over the Tiitles of Earth--Thc Tendency to Excuse Bie Sins and Mag
 nify Little Ones.

kubiect of recent sermon in the BrooKiyn Tabernacie: "Too Much Ado About Small Things,n preaching from the fol- lowing text; We blind guides which strain at 2 gnat and swallow . camel.-Matthew xxiii-. 2i
 The preacher said A proverb is com pact wisdom. knowledge in chunks, library in sentence, the electricity of many clouds discharged at one bolt, a river put through mill-race. When Christ quotes the proverb of text he means to set forth the udicrous behavior of those who make great buster about small sins and have no appreciation about great ones
 In my text a small insect and a large uuadruped are brought into comparison gnat and . camel. You have in museums or on the desert seen the latter, great, awkward, sprawling creature, with back two stories high, and stomach having collection of reservoirs for desert travel, an animal forbidden to the Jews as food, and in many literatures entitled 'the ship of the desert." The Cnat spoken of in the tex is in the grub form. It is born in pool or pond after a few weeks becoming cbrysals, and then, after few days, be- comes the gnat as we recognize 1t. But the insect spoken of in the text is in its very smallest shape, and it yet inhabits the water--for my text is q misprint, and ought to read, "strain out a gnat."
 My text shows you the prince of inccn- sistencies. A man after long observation has formed the suspicion that in 0 cup of water he is about to drink there is grub or the grandparent of a gnat He goes and gets seive and strainer. He takes the water and pours it through the sieve 1s--l.E IIA A.,I1 rather do any thing almost than drink this water until this larva be extlrpated." This water is brought under inquisition. The experiment. is successful. The water rushes through the sieve and leaves against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then the man care- fully removes the insect and drinks the water in placidity. But, on going out one day, and hungry, he devours ship of the desert," the camel which the Jews were forbidden to eat. the gastron omer has no compunctions of conscience. He puts the lower jaw under the cancels fore foot and the upper jaw over the hump of the cameps back and gives one swallow. and the dromedaiy disappears forever. He sIained at gnat and swallowed 9ne e, F1R dt IDe hDppSteneSS tanu Nlt ot Dto IF lustration--for smile they did in church, unless they were too stupid to understand the hyperbole-Christ practically said to them: "That is you" Punctllious about small things; reckless about affairs of great magnitude No subject ever writhed un- der q surgeons knife more bitterly than did the Pharisees under Christ's scalpel of truth As an anatomist will take human body to pieces and put them under microscope for examination, so Christ finds his way to the heart Of the dead Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under ~SsR glass of inspection for all generations to examine. Those Pharisees thought that c vist would fatter them and com plimentSkalm, and how they must have writhed un, ! thered- hot words as he said:
 Ye fools. yc-whited sepulchres, ye blind guides, which strain out gnat and swallow camel
 There are in our day great many gnats strained out and great many camels swallowed, and 1t is the object of this ser mon to sketch few persons who are ex- iensiveiy engaged in that business.
 First, remark that all those ministers of the Gospel are photographed in the text who are very scrupulous about the conventionalities of religion, but put no particular stress upon matters of vast i'm portance. Church services ought to be grave and solemn. There is no room for frivolity in religious convocation. But there are lustratIons and there are hyperboles, like that of Christ in the text, that will irradiate with smiles any in telligent auditory. There are men, like those bipd guides of the text, who advo- cate only those things in religious service which fraw the corners of the mouth down. and denounce all those things which have tendency to draw the corn CTS of the mouth up; and these men will go to Installations and to presbyteries and to conferences and to associations, their pockets full of fine seves to strain out the gnats, while in their own churches at home every Sunday there are fifty people sound asleep They make their churches great dormitory, and their somniferous sermons are a cradle, and the drawled-eut hymns a lullaby, while some wakeful soul in pew with-her fan keeps the flies off unconscious persons ap- proximate. Now, I say it is worse to sleep in church than to smile in church, for the latter implies at least attention, while the former implies the indifference of the hearers and the stupidity of the speaker. In old age, or from physical inhrmity, or from long watching with the sick, drows- mess will sometimes overpower one; but when minister of the Gospel looks of upon an audience and finds healthy and intelligent people struggling with drowsi- ness, it Is time for him to give out the Doxology or pronounce the berediction. The great fault of church services to-day Is not too much vivacitY, but too much xomnoIence- The one is an irrit ating gnat thar may be easily strained out, the other sa If.,fr md cIa xfs,I camel of the dry desert. In all 'our Sab bath schools, in all our Bible classes, in all our pulpits we need to brighten up our religious message with such Christ-like vivacity as we find in the text.
 1 take down from my library the biog- raphies of ministers and writers of past ages, inspired and uninspired, who have sdone the most to- bring souls to Jesus Christ and find that, without a single exception, they consecrated their wit and their humor to Christ. Elijah used it when he advised the Baalites, as they could not make their god respond, telling
 to call louder, as their god might be
 d asleep or gone hunting. Job used
 hen he said to his self-conce tied com
 ers, s'W isdom will die with you.u
 rist not only used 1t in the text, but Yhen he ironically complimented the 6utrefied Pharisees, saying, 'The whole yheed not a physician,p and when by one fword he described the cunning of Herod, saying, "Go ye and tell that fox'' Mat. thew Henry's commentaries, from the first page to the last, corruscated with humor as summer clouds with heat lightning. John Bunyan's writings are full of humor as they are of saving truth, and there is not an aged man here who has ever read 'Pilgrim's Progress" who does not remember that while reading it he had smiled as often as he wept. Chrysostom, George Herbert, Robert South, John Wesley, George Whitefeld, Jeremy Taylor, Rowland Hill Nettleton, George c. Finney, and all the men of the past who greatl advanced the Kingdom